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The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

bradmunchen.substack.com

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Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#61

Post by pardoned_turkey »

jojobas wrote: post #39
tonmoy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need to go to net zero somehow. With carbon capture or carbon offset technologies near non existing, we have to make the switch sooner or later

Trains.

The vast majority of trains in the US are diesel-powered, although they're about 4x more efficient than trucks.

It's tempting to imagine they could all run on electricity, but it's probably hard, as many routes go through hundreds of miles of rugged nothingness. This is quite different from rail transport in Europe.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#62

Post by Waterluvian »

DamnInteresting wrote: post #28
kcb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's something that's basically equivalent to a golf cart with a bed on it. Hardly an example of anything useful except transporting some stuff around your own property.

FTA: "It’s fine if people want to call it a “glorified golf cart”, though I’m not sure I’ve seen a golf cart that can tow a boat, haul furniture, dump mulch, and that comes with creature comforts like air-conditioning, infotainment screen, power windows and locks, and a frunk."

It’s basically a quad with a cabin. That’s pretty clever and would be useful in limited cases like working a farm. Obviously an F-150 or whatnot can also leave the farm.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#63

Post by ReactiveJelly »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #26
candiddevmike wrote: post #2

> The constant use of the battery pack is unprecedented and is causing reliability problems for Tesla and other EV truck makers I don't understand why this is a surprise and why they think they can muscle through it. I didn't think our current battery technology is built for this scenario. > During the installation process, the Megachargers took down the power grid for a good chunk of the city This is my fear with ev…

Compounded by getting rid of natural gas for cooking and heating. It's fine to say that electric is simpler to deliver and more efficient in theory, but our grid is not even a fraction ready for that, and heat pumps and induction ranges are a whole order of magnitude up the tech ladder from boilers and gas stoves, and by going all electric you lose the multiple sources redundancy which is literally a life saver. I do…

That's why a carbon tax (pollution tax, I hate calling pollution carbon) would be better than straight outlawing natural gas fuel. Too bad voters hate prices being anything but uniform and cheap. So much backlash even against demand pricing.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#64

Post by austinkhale »

Not sure it's worth putting a lot of weight behind an anonymous source when it directly contradicts a lot of what Pepsi has said publicly[1]. There is a whole movement to short Tesla and a lot of blogs & social media purposefully put out a lot of FUD that makes it difficult to understand what are real critiques vs market manipulation. I'm sure the Semi program isn't perfect but the blog post seems... biased.

[1] https://vimeo.com/851092605

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#65

Post by thebigjc »

ReactiveJelly wrote: post #46
thsksbd wrote: post #12

Batteries on semis dont make much sense to me. Hybrid systems on heavy inner city vehicles make a lot of sense. As do hybrids in mountainous areas. But long distance hauling? BS. Semi engines are large with very low power to displacement ratio -> they are very fuel efficient. Truck builders' customers are very sensitive to fuel consumption. I find it very hard to believe that marginal grid power (ie thermal plant), t…

Priuses manage to get 50 mpg highway without depleting charge or plugging in but I guess the same optimizations can't work on a big diesel as on a little gas engine?

https://www.edisonmotors.ca/ is making diesel electric trucks. They only claim a 5-10% improvement on long haul loads.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#66

Post by jacquesm »

I think the thing that Tesla misses when it comes to semi construction is that unlike with the roadster and the model-s launches the customers are unlikely to be impressed by the tech-bro bit and will first and foremost look at ergonomics, safety and economics. Image isn't on the front burner at all and I think the number of actual truck drivers at the Tesla design department approaches zero.

If they mess up the launch of the semi in terms of early adopter customer satisfaction they may not get a second chance.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#67

Post by xbmcuser »

kcb wrote: post #15
xbmcuser wrote: post #9

Looks like the design requirement for a heavy duty vehicle were not properly followed. Though that's how tesla builds something like software build find faults then itteriate. For light duty if you can get chinese $2000 truck with a hydraulic lift I think china is going to takeover the world's vehicle manufacturing markets. https://electrek.co/2023/11/14/two-years-after-buying-a-2000...

That's something that's basically equivalent to a golf cart with a bed on it. Hardly an example of anything useful except transporting some stuff around your own property.

for $2 fucking thousand not $70-100k.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#69

Post by ajross »

jojobas wrote: post #51
ajross wrote: post #14

[ Edit: I shouldn't have bothered. The whole blog is a TSLA short seller! They clearly aren't vetting this info, they're trying to drive clicks from forums like this one. ] The sourcing here is a bit spun. "An insider" turns out to be a random driver someone found at a truck stop? > This is why it was with great fortune to receive the details below, which were told to a trusted automotive source of mine by a PepsiCo…

When you're long and leveraged the entire world is short.

No, it's literally the blog of a Tesla short-seller. Read the archives. I love a good Musk pot shot as much as the next guy, but there are trustworthy sources to put on the front page of HN and there are sources we shouldn't be seeing. And this is one of them.

"My friend found a driver who knows super-secret business details" my butt, basically. Never trust an opinion site to break news. Ever.

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